The rail-mounted transport system is suitable for transport containers and interchangeable bodies at transshipment facilities where the containers or interchangeable bodies have to be transported, sorted or stored and where they are to be transported without the use of additional vehicles. Such storage and sorting facilities are found in harbors where the transshipment between ships and road vehicles or rail vehicles is effectuated, but also in transshipment terminals where transshipment is effectuated between rail vehicles and road vehicles. As a rule, such storage and transshipment facilities are associated with cranes, especially container cranes, with which the containers or interchangeable bodies can be placed directly onto the rail-mounted transport system, and the containers are moved or sorted in the direction of the warehouse or the rail-mounted and road-bound transport systems is carried out.
Container transport systems or transport systems for transporting containers in interchangeable bodies are known from the current state of the art. DE 195 03 877 C2 describes a two-part pallet with electro-motor linear drives for vehicles, whereby the pallet has two parts and travels through automatic car parking garages. The vehicle is guided by guide profiles and guide elements that roll along the guide profiles, whereby swiveling support rollers travel on the center part of the guide profiles. The proposed system has the drawback that a great deal of force has to be generated at the intersections in order to steer the swiveling support rollers in a different direction. Therefore, this system is not particularly suitable for very heavy loads.
DE 196 41 043 A1 discloses a container transport system with traveling linear motors and rotating wheels consisting of a network of tracks arranged crosswise at right angles and parallel with respect to each other, which form intersections, whereby guide rails are arranged in the middle of the transport tracks outside of the intersections, and track transporter trolleys with rollers that can rotate around a rotational axis travel on said rails, whereby the spacing of the rollers corresponds to the spacing of the track, and the rollers, which are surrounded by horizontal guide rollers, can be turned in the intersections, whereby in the lengthwise and crosswise directions, the transporter trolleys have magnets that move the transporter trolleys in the lengthwise and crosswise directions by means of stators of the tracks, whereby swiveling pushing carriages, which are arranged on the transporter trolley, turn the rollers that are present. The device is especially well-suited for transporting heavy loads in containers. With this device, each two pairs of rollers is actuated by one swiveling pushing carriage. The tracks are double T-beams, whereby there are guide rails in the middle of the tracks on which the guide rollers travel and which guide the wheels, there are stators arranged on both sides of the tracks and the rollers are connected to the transporter trolley by means of a rigid rotational axle. This system has the drawback that, due to the rigid connection of the rollers, tracks that slant to one side generate high forces in the axle or pivot joint of the rollers. Moreover, if the two sides of the track are not at the same height, the tracks are worn down on one side which, in the case of heavy loads, leads to considerable wear and to an impairment of the operational safety. In order to counter this, relatively wide double T-beams were selected as the track in this system, although these beams have to be replaced after a certain period of operation due to the small diameter of the top of the double T-beam.
EP 08 34 459 B1 discloses a container transport system with rails on tracks, linear motors and rotatable wheels with a system of tracks that are arranged crosswise, at right angles and parallel to each other, forming intersections, whereby the rails are only arranged outside of the intersections. The transporter trolley has wheels that can rotate around a pivot and that have horizontal guide rollers, whereby the spacing of the wheels corresponds to the spacing of the rails, and the wheels with the guide rollers can turn in the intersections. Magnets arranged on the transporter trolley in the lengthwise and crosswise directions move the transporter trolleys in the lengthwise and crosswise directions by means of stators as well as a linkage with an articulated lever, with a pushing carriage for turning the wheels with horizontal guide rollers, which is characterized in that the wheels on the transporter trolley are configured as double disk wheels. This system likewise has the drawback that the wheels are rigidly connected to the transporter trolley. The wheels consist essentially of three parts, whereby the middle part of the wheels travels on the rail, and guide rollers on both sides ensure that they are guided along the rail. However, rails are only arranged outside of the intersections, whereby only a limited part of the wheel surface travels on the rail. However, no continuous rail is present in the intersections since the double wheels in the embodied form have to turn on flat surfaces that are formed by plates. A drawback of the rail system is that no continuous rail is present but rather that, in the intersections, flat surfaces have to be present, which leads to differing wear between the rails and the turning surfaces, so that after a certain period of operation, the running surfaces or rails have to be reworked so that no joints between the intersection and the rail lead to wear of the system. Furthermore, the transporter trolleys cannot be braked with point precision.
DE 198 08 555 C1 describes a buffer for rail vehicles in which the rail vehicle is braked by a front plate on a damping rod, whereby the damping rod absorbs the impact forces. The buffer can be folded down, although only in the direction of the vehicle so that the vehicle has to be moved back with respect to the buffer. The buffer seems to be suitable for vehicles that have to be braked at a high speed, which is why a damping means is present. This device is unsuitable for vehicles that are traveling at a low speed and that have to be stopped, after which they continue to travel.